The Muskallunge 



too good for any but anglers and honest men." In Manitoba it is the 

 jack-fish, according to Mr Ernest Thompson Seton. 



One of the best streams for great pike fishing of which we 

 know is the Kankakee. In this sluggish river and its connecting 

 lakes this fish is quite common, and reaches a very large size. 

 The largest example of which we have any record as being taken 

 in the Kankakee weighed 26^ pounds. 



Br. 14 to 16; D. 16 or 17; A. 13 or 14; scales 123; cheeks 

 entirely scaly; upper part of opercle scaly, the lower half bare. 

 General colour, bluish or greenish-gray, with many whitish or yel- 

 lowish spots, which are usually smaller than the eye, and arranged 

 somewhat in rows; dorsal, anal and caudal fins with roundish or 

 oblong black spots; young with the whitish spots coalescing, 

 forming oblique crossbars; a white horizontal band bounding the 

 naked part of the opercle; each scale with a grayish V-shaped 

 mark. 



Muskallunge 



Esox masquinongy Mitchill 



Whence and what are you, monster grim and great ? 



Sometimes we think you are a "Syndicate," 



For if our quaint cartoonists be but just 



You have some features of the modern "Trust." 



A wide, ferocious and rapacious jaw, 



A vast, insatiate and expansive craw; 



And, like the "Trust," your chiefest aim and wish 



Was to combine in one all smaller fish, 



And all the lesser fry succumbed to fate, 



Whom you determined to consolidate. Wilcox. 



237 



